Gilbert Chagoury, who contributed millions to the Clinton Foundation and gave $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009, was barred entry into the USA because of his connection to a Lebanese organization allied with Hezbollah, a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization.
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Clinton Foundation mega-donor and longtime Clinton family friend Gilbert Chagoury was denied a visitor visa by the State Department in 2015 for terrorism-related reasons according to government documents, the LA Times reports.
Chagoury’s name has been brought up of late, because of an ask Clinton Foundation head Doug Band made of Hillary Clinton’s State Department – he wanted to put the donor, whose parents were Lebanese, in touch with the American government’s top Lebanon person.
“I think that both candidates, Crooked Hillary and myself, should release detailed medical records”. A report from the Associated Press found that more than half of Clinton’s meetings or phone calls with government outsiders were conducted with donors for the Clinton Foundation.
According to the LA Times, the State Department denied Chagoury’s visitor’s visa after he applied for one at the USA embassy in Paris last summer.
“These revelations are yet another example of why the Clinton Foundation must be shut down and Hillary Clinton must demand the State Department immediately release her official schedules in full before the election”.
The Clinton Foundation has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks, as Clinton allies have acknowledged problems with the “charitable” organization, and have called for action to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. An FBI intelligence report in 2013 suggested that Chagoury may have been involved in “facilitating fundraising for Hezbollah”.
Ross cites a CNN report that the Clinton campaign said on background that Chagoury sought contact with a us official in charge of Lebanese affairs in order to discuss issues related to elections that would be held months later.
Michel de Chadarev, an official with Aoun’s party, told the Times that Chagoury stopped supporting the politician years ago after a dispute over oil franchises, noting that the billionaire backs one of Aoun’s rivals for the Lebanese presidency. So when Band told Mills and Abedin to put Chagoury in touch with the State Department’s “substance person” on Lebanon, it might have been for the objective of helping Chagoury’s friend Aoun in an election.
Chagoury has a long history of legal drama. It is clear that Chagoury had access, via the Clinton Foundation and by virtue of his donations to that outfit, to Hillary Clinton’s top aides at the very least, and that Abedin followed up on Band’s request on behalf of Chagoury.
It’s not clear whether Chagoury got a meeting with the US “substance person on Lebanon”.
The billionaire was on the Department of Homeland Security’s no-fly list in 2010 and was pulled off a plane. The Department of Homeland Security eventually apologized for the incident.
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The U.S. placed Chagoury in a database used to screen travelers for potential terrorism links.
